Slowness-backazimuth weighted migration: A new array approach to a high-resolution image

We have developed a new array method combining conventional migration with a slowness-backazimuth deviation weighting scheme. All seismic traces are shifted based on the theoretical traveltime of the scattered wave from specific gridpoints in a 3-D volume. Observed slowness and backazimuth are calculated for each raypath and compared with theoretical values in order to estimate slowness and backazimuth deviations. Subsequently, stacked energy calculated by a conventional migration method is weighted by the slowness and backazimuth deviations to suppress any arrival energy whose slowness and backazimuth are inconsistent with the expected theoretical values. This new method was applied to two P- wave data sets which comprise (1) underside reflections at the 410 and 660 km mantle discontinuities and (2) D" reflections as well as their corresponding synthetic data sets. The results show that the weighting scheme dramatically increases the resolution of the migrated images and enables us to obtain well-constrained, focused images, making upper-mantle discontinuities and D" reflections more distinct by reducing their surrounding energy.     

Efficiency of heavy liquid separation to concentrate magnetic particles

Low-temperature rock magnetic measurements have distinct diagnostic value. However, in most bulk marine sediments the concentration of ferrimagnetic and antiferromagnetic minerals is extremely low, so even sensitive instrumentation often responds to the paramagnetic contribution of the silicate matrix in the residual field of the magnetometer. Analysis of magnetic extracts is usually performed to solve the problems raised by low magnetic concentrations. Additionally magnetic extracts can be used for several other analyses, for example electron microscopy or X-ray diffraction. The magnetic extraction technique is generally sufficient for sediments dominated by magnetite. In this study however, we show that high-coercivity components are rather underrepresented in magnetic extracts of sediments with a more complex magnetic mineralogy. We test heavy liquid separation, using hydrophilic sodium polytungstenate solution Na₆[H₂W₁₂O₄₀], to demonstrate the efficiencies of both concentration techniques. Low-temperature cycling of zero-field-cooled, field-cooled and saturation isothermal remanent magnetization acquired at room temperature was performed on dry bulk sediments, magnetic extracts, and heavy liquid separates of clay-rich pelagic sediments originating from the Equatorial Atlantic. The results of the thermomagnetic measurements clarify that magnetic extraction favours components with high spontaneous magnetization, such as magnetite and titanomagnetite. The heavy liquid separation is unbiased with respect to high- and low-coercive minerals, thus it represents the entire magnetic assemblage.     

SOCIAL RELATIONS SPATIALLY FIXED: CONSTRUCTION AND MAINTENANCE OF SCHOOL DISTRICTS IN SAN ANTONIO,TEXAS

ABSTRACT. More than 140 court cases filed in the United States between 1970 and 2003 argued that unacceptable and unconstitutional funding disparities exist among school districts in most states. In those arguments, stories, statistics, and maps are used to compare various school districts to prove that conditions are indeed unequal. Both sides—plaintiff and defendant—use such information to disprove each other's contentions. In so doing, each assumes that the political spaces of the school districts are absolute, timeless, and independent. Failure to recognize that these spaces—the school districts—are not objective but, in fact, constitutive of the class and race relations actually being argued and debated in court further legitimates local geographies of privilege and deprivation. I examine the formation of the school districts around San Antonio, Texas to illustrate that these districts are far from independent of one another and were formed to isolate privileged communities from the rest of the city. A relational view of space‐time allows such spaces as school districts to assume a political role, as opposed to the absolute, independent spaces they now represent.     

Paleozoic tectonism on the East Gondwana margin: Evidence from SHRIMP U–Pb zircon geochronology of a migmatite–granite complex in West Antarctica

The Fosdick Mountains migmatite–granite complex in West Antarctica records episodes of crustal melting and plutonism in Devonian–Carboniferous time that acted to transform transitional crust, dominated by immature oceanic turbidites of the accretionary margin of East Gondwana, into stable continental crust. West Antarctica, New Zealand and Australia originated as contiguous parts of this margin, according to plate reconstructions, however, detailed correlations are uncertain due to a lack of isotopic and geochronological data. Our study of the mid-crustal exposures of the Fosdick range uses U–Pb SHRIMP zircon geochronology to examine the tectonic environment and timing for Paleozoic magmatism in West Antarctica, and to assess a correlation with the better known Lachlan Orogen of eastern Australia and Western Province of New Zealand.NNE–SSW to NE–SW contraction occurred in West Antarctica in early Paleozoic time, and is expressed by km-scale folds developed both in lower crustal metasedimentary migmatite gneisses of the Fosdick Mountains and in low greenschist-grade turbidite successions of the upper crust, present in neighboring ranges. The metasedimentary rocks and structures were intruded by calc-alkaline, I-type plutons attributed to arc magmatism along the convergent East Gondwana margin. Within the Fosdick Mountains, the intrusions form a layered plutonic complex at lower structural levels and discrete plutons at upper levels. Dilational structures that host anatectic granite overprint plutonic layering and migmatitic foliation. They exhibit systematic geometries indicative of NNE–SSW stretching, parallel to a first-generation mineral lineation. New U–Pb SHRIMP zircon ages for granodiorite and porphyritic monzogranite plutons, and for leucogranites that occupy shear bands and other mesoscopic-scale structural sites, define an interval of 370 to 355 Ma for plutonism and migmatization.Paleozoic plutonism in West Antarctica postdates magmatism in the western Lachlan Orogen of Australia, but it coincides with that in the central part of the Lachlan Orogen and with the rapid main phase of emplacement of the Karamea Batholith of the Western Province, New Zealand. Emplaced within a 15 to 20 million year interval, the Paleozoic granitoids of the Fosdick Mountains are a product of subduction-related plutonism associated with high temperature metamorphism and crustal melting. The presence of anatectic granites within extensional structures is a possible indication of alternating strain states (‘tectonic switching’) in a supra-subduction zone setting characterized by thin crust and high heat flow along the Devonian–Carboniferous accretionary margin of East Gondwana.     

Rapid and cyclic aeolian deposition during the Last Glacial in European loess: a high-resolution record from Nussloch, Germany

This paper reports the results of an investigation of the Weichselian Upper Pleniglacial loess sequences of Nussloch (Rhine Valley, Germany) based on stratigraphy, palaeopedology, sedimentology, palynology, malacology and geochemistry (δ¹³C), supported by radiocarbon, TL and OSL dating. Grain-size and magnetic susceptibility records are taken at 5 cm intervals from the Upper Pleniglacial (UPG) loess. The data indicate cyclic variations in loess deposition between ca 34 and 17 ka, when the sedimentation rate is especially high (1.0–1.2 m per ka for more than 10 m). The grain-size index (GSI: ratio of coarse silt versus fine silt and clay) shows variations, which are assumed to be an indirect measurement of wind intensity. The sedimentation rate, interpreted from the profiles, indicates high values in loess (Loess events LE-1 to LE-7) and low or negligible values in tundra gley horizons G1 to G8. OSL ages from the loess and ¹⁴C dates from organic matter in the loess show that loess deposition was rapid but was interrupted by shorter periods of reduced aeolian sedimentation. Comparison between the data from Nussloch and other European sequences demonstrates a progressive coarsening of the loess deposits between ca 30 and 22 ka. This coarsening trend ends with a short but major grain-size decrease and is followed by an increase to a new maximum at 20 ± 2 ka (“W” shape). Correlation between the loess GSI and the Greenland ice-core dust records, suggests a global connection between North Atlantic and Western European global atmospheric circulation and wind regimes. In addition, the typical Upper Pleniglacial loess deposition begins at ca 30–31 ka, close to Heinrich event (HE) 3, and the main period of loess sedimentation at about 25 ± 2 ka is coeval to HE 2. Correlation of magnetic susceptibility and grain-size records shows that the periods, characterised by high GSI, coincide with an increase in the amount of ferromagnetic minerals reworked from the Rhine alluvial plain. They suggest enhancement in the frequency of the storms from N–NW. These results are integrated within a palaeogeographical model of dust transport and deposition in Western Europe for the Weichselian Upper Pleniglacial (or Late Pleniglacial).